Firewall for Gates
If you were ever to accept the proposed terms of the mini-DMCAs, as reported here, you may face yourself in serious trouble:
Ed points out that this boils down to 'use a firewall, go to jail,' but we really think he's not being nearly ambitious enough here. It strikes us that, as the proud owner of Internet Connection Sharing, Bill Gates develops, distributes and licenses a communications device which is used to conceal "the existence or place of origin or destination of any communication." So we say, 'use a a firewall, go to jail, but also send Bill Gates to jail.' Ah, decisions, decisions...
But that is not the point. In any sufficiently advanced technological society, there are going to be transactions that should remain invisible to some of the parts involved, simply because they are not interested, or because this lack of knowledge allows to concentrate in the core business, instead of going around persecuting the neighbors for their dissent and activities. It also shields the participants in these complex transactions from the activities of their customers, thus limiting responsibility and the possibility that they may be involved and/or share responsibility, in the event of a suit.We keep these separated so they will have properly defined barriers, places where innovation can proceed unencumbered by continuous peeking over the shoulder of your customer. Even though a service or good may be misused, it has long been understood that the company providing such good or service is not responsible for what the user finally does with the product – tobacco companies notwithstanding, where the problem was not the use but the misinformation – as the gun companies have long and successfully shown over time.
However, in this attempt to pre-emptively attack sovereign nations, squash dissention and limit rights, the notion that the user must provide full access to the ISP implies that a) we must infringe upon the private dealings of individuals, and b) the ISPs are the perfect agents for doing so.
Excuse me. You may observe somebody’s dealings only after a judge has granted you access to that person’s files. Second, the ISP business has nothing to do with vigilance and more with bandwidth – what you do with that is your responsibility. Third, and more important, the assumption from a government that everybody under it is suspect of treason does wonderful service to a totalitarian regime, suppression of free speech and gulag mentality. It destroys democracy, mobility, and innovation. It cements old power structures, allows to the resurgence of hierarchies of influence, and limits exploration, discovery and invention.
Is that what you want? Do you want to become part of Gulag USA? Do you want "these values", to become a quaint little memory, but nothing else?